I heard some foods are dangerous for very young children, like grapes and hot dogs. Why is that? What can I do so they can eat them?

Some foods are too slippery and too large for little mouths and the large pieces can easily get lodged in their smaller windpipes. They also do not always chew things up carefully. It is easy to prevent that danger simply by cutting the offending foods into much smaller bite sized pieces. Cut hot dogs lengthwise into four or six long cuts. Then dice the long pieces into smaller bites. With grapes cut them in half, then in half again and again if you need to. Another offending food is marshmallows. Kids think it is great fun to stuff their mouths full of the gooey sticky treats. The problem is they can swell on their mouths and get stuck in their throats. Unlike the hotdogs and grapes, which can be dislodged, the marshmallows can stick and not be dislodged easily. If you choose to give them marshmallows, get the tiny ones and mix them with other treats like dried cereal or bits of cut up fruit so they don’t take a whole mouthful of marshmallows by mistake. Every food takes common sense when you are giving it to a small child. You want to cut things into small bites and decide if it is even a food they should be attempting to eat yet. Yes it can make eating it messier at times but it is a safer way to give certain foods to small children. Be sure to stick around while they are eating and keep them from walking around with food in their mouths. Toddlers often fall and food can easily get pushed down their throats in a fall. Little people like to put everything in their mouths, Make sure what you give them is cut up properly. Mama Nono

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